Self-organization of Bouncing Oil Drops: Two-dimensional Lattices and Spinning Clusters

Multiple oil drops bouncing on the surface of a vertically vibrating bath of the same oil exhibit self-organization behavior in two dimensions [S. Protière, Y. Couder, E. Fort, and A. Boudaoud, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17, S3529 (2005)]. We describe further the morphology and dynamic behavior of stable assemblies of large bouncing oil drops, for which we find that both the spacing and the lattice structure itself change with frequency, with variants of both square and hexagonal structures being observed. Large "rafts" of drops form soft triangular lattices with faceted boundaries. Small clusters of drops are unstable to coherent, collective spinning under certain driving conditions, manifesting spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking.